I already have a fresh cheese gnocchi recipe published here made with fresh made ricotta cheese that you make yourself. I recently got a great deal on blue cheese so I thought I’d make Blue Cheese Gnocchi. They are very flavorful and do taste very good.  The taste sets them apart from many other gnocchi.

If you never made gnocchi before I recommend that you make my fresh cheese recipe gnocchi first. Even if you don’t make the cheese and purchase cheese you will learn how to make gnocchi better as this recipe is a little harder because the ratio of flour differed.

I sort of regret using the light heirloom beets instead of regular red or golden beets because the regular beets might have been more attractive for this dish.

The hard part for me was deciding on what sauce to prepare with them. I thought that the flavor is powerful so I thought they needed some other flavors and textures for a kind of balance with beets, apples and walnuts.

****************Blue Cheese Gnocchi******************************

Ingredients about 8 servings

10 oz blue cheese – leave out for about an hour so it warms up and gets soft

1 XL egg – beaten

1 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup flour

Water for boiling gnocchi

1 Tablespoon kosher or sea salt – to be added to boiling water

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil – for sprinkling on each batch of gnocchi so they don’t stick..(and it also adds another layer of flavor)

Directions

Get your sauce pot filled about 3/4s with water and a Tablespoon of salt on to a medium boil.

In a large bowl add blue cheese, egg and flour and mix well.

hand pinch off one gnocchi and do a tester to make sure you like it because the ingredients do vary depending on the humidity and mostly your cheese. You might need slightly less flour or slightly more flour. I try to make a very light melt in your mouth kind of gnocchi that differs very much from a frozen type. I try to use just enough flour to hold it together.

When you decide you like the gnocchi put about 1/3 of the mixture in a disposable pastry bag with the top tip cut off.

Twist the bottom to hold everything in and squeeze.

either knock off or swat each gnocchi off with your finger until done or add a string to the handle and use the string to cut off the gnocchi. After the gnocchi float for a few minutes take them out with a slotted spoon and give them a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil so they don’t stick.

For this recipe I used sheet pans to hold the gnocchi in a single layer to make sure they wouldn’t stick.

*SAVE your gnocchi water because it will be used to used to cook the beets!

The gnocchi are done and now you can put them aside and prepare the walnuts.

***********************For The Walnuts******************************

Ingredients

cup walnuts

2 cups water

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

fresh cracked black pepper a few cracks

Directions

Put your walnuts and water in a microwave safe bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Microwave three minutes.

Uncover and drain the brown water you just released some of the bitterness.

Rub the walnuts dry with a paper towel.

Now place them in a small bowl add remaining ingredients mix well and place the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Leave out to cool and put to the side.

 

*****************For The Roasted Beet Sauce*************************

Ingredients****** (note I originally made double of this recipe and found that I had 2x of what I needed so I cut recipe in 1/2 so you’d have the right amount of sauce. Feel fee to double because you can freeze it and use for another time over chicken, more blue cheese gnocchi or something else)

1 1/2 large Beets ( I purchased my beets at the farmers market and got the mostly white candy stripe ones that only turn slightly pink) Any beet will do.

2 medium apples pealed, cored and cut in cubes

1/2 small sweet onion

1 garlic cloves

1 carrot

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 Tablespoon kosher or sea salt

1/2 banana pepper (or any pepper with heat that you like)

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon thyme

about 1/2 the water saved from boiling the gnocchi

neutral non-stick spray

1/2 medium sweet onion – chopped

1 celery ribs – pealed (like you do a carrot)  – chopped small

1small or a 1/2 garlic clove – grated

splash red wine

1/4 cup scallions chopped

Fresh ground salt and pepper to taste.

 

Directions

Put your apple on a non-stick sprayed  baking sheet and roast 30 minutes and put away.

Get the beets, carrot,  garlic clove, banana pepper, 1/2 c sugar, 1/2T salt, apple cider vinegar , thyme and fill about 3/4s with the water saved from boiling the gnocchi  into a pan and roast for about 2 hours.

I waited till the next day to finish but you can do the same day.

When the contents are cool enough to handle-

Toss out the carrot, onion, garlic and banana pepper.

KEEP THE LIQUID and peal the beets and cut in cubes and put the liquid and cut beets to the side.

Get a large sauce pan on medium high heat and spray with non-stick spray.

Heat up your celery, garlic and onion till soft.

Add the wine and some reserved liquid and let reduce a little and in the mean time gather HALF your beets and HALF your apples and blend them with some of the reserved liquid up to thicken and flavor your sauce. Add fresh ground s&p to taste.

To serve heat sauce up with the apples and beets and near the end add the gnocchi and before serving add top with the walnuts and some scallions.

This really came out delicious.  It’s something unique but really good. Give it a try using any color of beet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s easy to prepare delicious food when you use full fat ingredients. But it’s a challenge to create delicious foods that are reduced in fat. Cream Cheese, Mayonnaise and Sour Cream  are usually the base to most artichoke dips. They all have high fat contents and are high in calories.

3 ounces of mayonnaise is about 142 calories and 29.76g fat

3 ounces of sour cream is about 156 calories and 15.12g fat

3 ounces of cream cheese is about 306 calories and 30.36g fat

while

Silken Tofu is only

3 ounces of silken tofu is 50 calories and 2.5g fat

For my base I used silken Nigari Tofu. It only has 2.5 g Fat per 3 ounces. That is nearly fat free! It’s a health food. It has almost no flavor so it’s a blank canvas that you can do a lot with it.

I infused the artichoke with flavors. (********see yesterday’s post or just type in artichoke in the search for my directions.) The dip is seasoned to perfection. If the directions are followed exactly your dip should come out delicious.

Ingredients for about 10 servings

8 oz artichoke scrapping (what you scrap off from the leaves after cooking)

11.5 (package) Silken Tofu Nigari

1/2 cup (scant)  parmesan – grated

1 small lemon – just the juice

1/4 cup scallions – chopped

1 Tablespoon Dijon

2 teaspoons garlic confit (I do this in batches and it last for weeks. I roast garlic with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil covered at 350 degrees F for about an hour. The garlic turns sweet and it gets whipped up with a stick blender and is a smooth butter like texture I like to use in cold food)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

Directions

Just combine and blend.

Nobody will ever guess the base is healthy tofu. This really came out delicious!

 

I seen baby purple artichokes before but this is my first time coming across full grown purple artichokes so I picked two up.

I treated them the same way I’d treat a green artichoke because they were large. I do know the baby purples can be eaten raw. I do note that after cooking the artichokes turn green.

So I started by soaking them in a gallon plastic bag upside down so all the dirt would fall out.  I peeled the steam and sliced the very end off and trimmed them.

I cooked them on the stove top with……..

Carrot, 1/2 Onion, Lemon, 3 Garlic Cloves, 2 tiny Bay leaves, 1/2 a Banana Pepper and instead of salt a heaping Tablespoon of Vegetable Base. I covered the vegetables with water and brought to a boil and reduced to simmer for about an hour.

When the artichokes were cool enough to handle I decided I wanted to prepare my two artichokes two ways. I scraped out the leaves to make Reduced Fat Artichoke Dip and I used the Button and Stem to Fry in Panko and Parmesan Cheese in Butter.

It sounds like a lot of work but it only took me about 15 minutes to scape the two artichoke’s leaves.

The leaves near the choke have almost nothing to scape off so I just remove those leaves and scrape out the choke.

I cut the buttons in half and used the stems.

I used 1/4 cup parmesan shredded

1/2 cup panko

1 egg beaten

pinch granulated garlic

fresh crushed sea salt and black pepper

and just fried them in

4 Tablespoons of non-salted butter

Sprinkled some parmesan cheese and scallions on the top.

In a medium bowl combine the panko, shredded cheese, garlic salt and pepper. In a small bowl is your beaten egg. Dip the artichoke pieces in the egg and coat with crump and repeat. Then fry in butter on medium heat. Optional – Top them with either scallions or parsley and some more parmesan cheese.

These came out FORKING GREAT! The button is the best part of the artichoke so you should do something rich and indulgent with it.

Out of the artichoke scrapping I made Reduced Fat Artichoke Dip that’s made with a secret ingredient. NOBODY would ever guess that this is reduced fat. This sure doesn’t taste like reduced fat at all.

I’ll post this recipe tomorrow.

I read about this bread in Saveur Magazine. They say it’s a popular street food in Ragusa Sicily. It’s a thin dough that can be filled with a variety of fillings and is folded into a lasagna style loaf. It should be served when the loaf is still warm.

I can’t find the caciocavallo cheese that’s recommended for the recipe in my area so I substituted sliced provolone.

I never made Scaccia before so I followed Saveur’s recipe till it failed me.

I followed the dough recipe exactly and my ingredients wouldn’t form into a dough. It stayed like sand. So I added an extra Table of extra virgin olive oil and still the dough was no good. but was closer to dough. (picture below)

So I slowly added a 1/4 cup of warm water till it turned into a dough ball. The recipe worked after that. I note I don’t know if you will have the same problem with the recipe because I live in Arizona where the air is very dry and our water is very hard and that might be a factor in why many baking recipes don’t work out as written.

I think I can tweak the recipe slightly for next time. I might increase the tomatoes just slightly by adding just slightly more tomato solids and increase the cheese by 1-2 ounces using a blend of cheese. I do note if I used the  caciocavollo cheese I might have gotten a more cheesy filling.

The Scaccia came out delicious and I can’t wait to do variations of this recipe I got a million ideas.

Below is the recipe and I also included what I added to it if you find your ingredients  not coming out into dough the same way mine did.

Ingredients makes about 6 servings

1 1/4 teaspoon sugar (1/4 + 1t latter in the recipe for the sauce)

1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 cups durum wheat semolina flour

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (note I needed to use a total of three T)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

all purpose flour for dusting

2 cups whole pealed canned tomatoes in juice

1 garlic clove finely chopped

1/2 cup loosely packed basil -chopped

fresh cracked pepper to taste

fresh crushed salt to taste

8oz caciocavallo cheese

Directions

In a large bowl whisk together 1/4 teaspoon of sugar, the yeast and 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons lukewarm water. Let it stand until foamy about 10 minutes. Stir in semolina flour, i Tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt until the dough comes together. Scrape the dough into a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth, about 8  minutes. Transfer the dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature about 2 hours until the dough doubles.(******note I added an additional 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1/4 cup warm water that I added at the end of making the dough -I don’t know if you will need to add additional liquid)

Now make your tomato sauce. Tomatoes with juice get blended till smooth. In a small sauce pan add 1 Tablespoon olive oil over medium heat add garlic and cook tim it begins to brown and then add tomatoes and the one teaspoon of sugar. Bring to simmer and let it simmers till it reduces a bit. Remove from heat and add basil and well season it with salt and pepper.

Heat your oven to 450 degrees F and line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a 26×18 inch rectangle.

Follow my pictures.

 

Here you bring the right side over.

Now bring up the bottom.

Now place in you parchment lined loaf pan and pierce the top with a fork.

I folded parchment over the top.

Put in your 450 degree oven about an hour. I left mine in for 70 minutes. The Scaccia should be dark brown on the top and charred on edges.

When it comes out of the oven you need to pop it out of the pan on to a cooling rack. After 10 minutes turn it over and let it cool another 10 minutes and serve it warm.

Something fun and tasty.

My husband was very sad when this bread got finished. He said that I gotta forking make four loaves next time.

I already posted recipes for easy microwave potato chips and carrot chips so I wondered if I could make zucchini chips the same way and yes it works. They come out light as air and are tasty. They are very light and delicate. Not sturdy like the carrot and potato chips. Zucchini chips would be a great substitute to croutons on a salad.

For all of these microwave vegetable chip recipes I use a Corning Ware Bowl to cook them on.

Ingredients for two large servings

1 washed zucchini sliced thin on a mandolin

fresh cracked sea salt

non-stick cooking spray

Directions

Spread out your zucchini slices on a couple paper towels and blot dry.

Lightly spray your bowl with non-stick spray and blot it a little so it’s not too wet.

Now arrange your zucchini.

Depending on size of your zucchini and microwaves do very they might need three to four minutes to look like this.

Now remove the delicate zucchini slices onto a paper towel or plate and your bowl will be wet so you need to wipe the moister out. Now put your zucchini back in but on the other side and in 2 or 3 more minutes in the microwave you will have chips. I lightly salt them when they are done.

Tasty and light as air. Easy to woof down.

This is a very healthy light eggplant dip that’s forking delicious. This will be among one of the best Baba Ghanoush Dips you ever tried.

Ingredients for about 4 servings

1 eggplant -(mine was on the large side)  peeled, roasted, broiled, , chilled and drained

3- Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon (just the fresh squeezed juice)

1 teaspoon (heaping) tehini

1 teaspoon garlic confit (garlic cloves drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and roasted about an hour at 350 degrees F till soft and whip so it turns like a butter)

1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/2 cup water

fresh ground sea salt to taste

Aleppo Pepper to taste

optional teaspoon of sugar

This is an easy way to make great Baba Ghanoush the healthy and tasty eggplant dip. Just roast up a peeled and cubed eggplant covered with foil sprinkled with lemon juice and oil at 350 degrees until done. Then low broil the eggplant till charred. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate till cool or over night and drain liquids. The liquid is bitter and make sure you remove it. At this point you should recook the eggplant again but this time just put it in a microwave safe bowl covered with plastic wrap and microwave it about three minutes. Remove liquids again. Add remaining ingredients and blend to your liking and enjoy. You just might have the most delicious Baba Ghanoush you ever tried.

*****For SPECIAL Occasion Baba Ghanoush****

Heat up a charcoal BBQ and purchase WHITE EGGPLANTS that you peel and brush with olive oil.  Cut them in slices, BBQ, and make char marks. You won’t need the liquid smoke or the sugar. This will be delicious the absolute best ever. The white eggplant is the best tasting sweetest eggplant. You won’t need to do all the draining and recooking either if you use a white eggplant on a charcoal BBQ.

 

 

This salsa is light, bright, fresh and crunchy. It’s sort of spicy and fruity. It’s something you might like to try when it’s hot outside because the citrus and mint will cool you down.

Ingredients for about 6 servings

4 medium grapefruit supreme

1 red bell pepper cored, seeded and chopped

1/4 sweet onion chopped

1 jalapeno chopped (small)

2 garlic cloves minced or finely shredded

1/4 cup scallions chopped

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup (loose) fresh mint chopped or torn

1 teaspoon salt (kosher or sea salt)

Easy directions just combine and mix. Chill and enjoy with fish or chicken or in a taco or quesadilla.

To supreme citrus.

Cut top and bottom off and then keep removing sides  down ward along the shape of the fruit.

When done.

Just cut the segments out.

The supreme segments are far sweeter and more delicious this way.

I only use red grapefruits because the others are too bitter for me.

A non-traditional healthy salsa you might go for once in a while.

 

Pimiento Cheese Spread is a common food that’s served in the Southern United States. The main ingredients in Pimiento Cheese are Pimiento Peppers that are also called Cherry Peppers. Some of the other common ingredients are sharp cheddar cheese and mayonnaise.

The pimiento peppers are also known as cherry peppers are the bigger heart shaped peppers that are more sweet and more aromatic than red bell peppers.  The cherry peppers I used are smaller jarred peppers that are sweet and spicy.

I didn’t want to make a traditional pimiento cheese spread that is extremely high in fat so I did a few things different but came out with a tasty spread that seems full fat.

Jarred hot/sweet cherry peppers were used. They are very flavorful, a little sweet and a little heat. They are  fruity delicious peppers. They give the spread zig and a little heat.

Instead of real cheddar cheese I went with fat free cheddar and saved a bunch of fat here. I do note you are welcome to substitute half or all full fat cheese if the fat content doesn’t bother you and your spread will taste better than mine. I also used Neufchatel Cheese that is 30% less fat than cream cheese. Only the most minimal amount of low fat mayonnaise was used.  Don’t worry I added enough spices and seasoning so you will not be missing a thing as the recipe is written.

You are welcome to convert some or all the fat free and reduced fat ingredients or use full fat  mayonnaise. The taste and mouth feel will be improved and I warn you that your butt and tummy might expand a bit as well.

My recipe is not an authentic Southern American Pimiento Spread. This recipe is a very reduced fat spread that has a similar taste to pimento cheese.

Ingredients makes about 16 servings

8oz fat free cheddar – shredded (I used a block I could shred) (This cheese can be purchased at Whole Foods and Sprouts)

12 hot/sweet jarred cherry peppers chopped + 2 Tablespoons of the brine from the cherry peppers (Sprouts and Trader Joes sells these peppers) (if your on the East Coast you won’t have any trouble finding these peppers)

1 garlic clove grated

8oz neufchâtel cheese (look for this cheese in the cream cheese section. I used the Philadelphia Brand)

2 Tablespoons dijon mustard

4 Tablespoons low fat mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 Tablespoons scallions chopped

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Just blend with your stick blender and your done. I note styles of pimento cheese differ and differ in texture. (you might like yours very chunky so you can mix in your shredded sharp cheddar cheese at the end)

People use this similar kind of cheese on burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and with fried green tomatoes. I like this spread on vegetable crisps but I also admit this spread might be better rolled up on a tortilla and topped with a chunk of Chef Thomas Keller’s Favorite Blue Ribbon Pickles (recipe on site).

Forking Good and it won’t cause rapid butt and stomach growth!

 

 

I had my fryer all fired up with canola oil so I thought I’d use my Paderno Spiralizer and Spiralize two russet potatoes. They fried up tasting like potato chips and looking like tumbleweeds so I’m calling these Tumbleweed Potato Chips. I had the oil set on 400 degrees F.  I had to drop the potatoes in about a quarter of the potato at a time because the oil bubbles up from the moisture in the potato and I have a very small fryer. Sprinkled the hot potatoes with fresh ground sea salt and black pepper. They are crispy and different. These Tumbleweed Potato Chips came out really delicious. They would also be awesome on top of a casserole or topped with a yummy cheese sauce, a creamy dip or just plain.

Ingredients for 4 large servings

2 large russet potatoes – spiralized

canola oil to fill your fryer

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Directions

I set my fryer at 400 degrees F. Carefully placed potatoes using tongs about 1/4 of one potato every partial minute till oil bubbles seized in two batches. When you pull out the tumbleweed you place it on a pan covered with paper towels and season the tumbleweed right away.

Something fun you might want to make once in a while.

One of my all-time most popular recipes on this site is my Spicy Green Skhug Sauce. Two whole forking years after I published it that recipe is still the most viewed. Basically Skhug sauce is a Yemenite Middle Eastern Hot Sauce made of hot peppers, garlic and spices. Skhug is used to zip things up. Skhug is also considered to add health benefits to food.

In case you don’t know skhug is also a “flavor bomb” It’s scorching hot, complex and flavorful. Since it;s a bomb a little goes a long way.

Skhug is made in three varieties, red -made with red peppers, green – with lots of cilantro, green peppers and parsley and brown with tomatoes, peppers and herbs.

In the past year or so I’m liking different fresh hot peppers that I can purchase here in Arizona.

At the moment the most flavorful pepper I’ve found is the banana pepper because they are not just very hot but have a lot of delicious flavor. I would convert most of my earlier recipes using hot peppers to include the banana pepper since the ones I buy here are hot and flavorful.

The banana pepper comes in a rainbow of colors and the ones sold in Arizona are extremely hot and flavorful unlike the banana peppers grown back the east cost where they are milder.

I made this recipe with red jalapeño peppers that were milder and fruity and that one red banana pepper. I also added roasted red bells peppers and the sweet liquid they gave off from roasting.

Skhug must have a good amount of garlic so I used my garlic confit that added refinement, a special sugary sweetness and a more delicious and more soft roasted garlic flavor. This hot sauce came out forking delicious.

I wasn’t in the mood for cilantro so I added a little fresh mint instead. I note that you are free to add cilantro for a more traditional taste.

Skhug is a very hot but delicious sauce. You might want to use it to flavor dressings, dips, sandwich spreads or hummus.

Traditional Skhug is  minced or relish like in texture. I choose to blend it because I didn’t want to get too much hot pepper in a bite.

Ingredients makes about 12 Servings

6 red jalapeno peppers – core and stem removed – pepper chopped

1 red banana pepper – core and stem removed – pepper chopped

2 roasted red bell peppers – core and steam removed chopped and include sweet liquid released from roasting

3-4 Tablespoons garlic confit – roast garlic cloves covered at 350 degrees F with sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil till soft 1-1 1/2 hour and whip till like butter

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/4 teaspoon cardamon

pinch cloves

1/4 teaspoon caraway

1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon fresh mint –  chopped

1 Tablespoon fresh parsley –  chopped

Directions

Blend and your ready to serve.

Enjoy